ME AND HOLMES

 We may not like[or probably hate] certain things just because the first time we encountered it may not have been very good. At least that is an excuse that is acceptable. But when we don't try something and hate it, that will be the exact definition of prejudice. Here, I am not asking you to try risky things....

Before that,   

Reading novels and stories makes me really happy

When I was a kid we travelled in train for hours during the holidays and to keep me engaged my mom bought me all the story books available in the station like fairy tales, Arabian nights and Aesop's Fables. I started reading  a lot of books(only story books/novels) from the libraries in the schools in which I studied.Three boooks can be borrowed at a time and I read them in the school bus, at home and again in the school bus. I returned them in one or two days and the librarians suspected that I returned the books without reading. I never looked at the name of the author and sometimes even forgot the name of the book that I read the day before and was very happy about the three new books at hand. Very soon I was banned from reading story books by my parents.

That being the case, and mathematics teachers in every class calling my parents, I was allowed to read books  only on Sundays. I managed to buy books in book stalls and book exhibitions in schools.... and that was when I found a treasure:SHERLOCK HOLMES. This blog is about me requesting you to start reading novels in case you are looking for a new hobby. SHERLOCK HOLMES by SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE is a good one to begin with. Harry Potter collection of books is my favorite and occupies the throne of books, but since fantasy is a genre which is way out of league for some people, I am choosing my second favorite and I promise that if you are going to choose reading as your new hobby, I am sure SHERLOCK HOLMES will not fail you.

The first ever collection of books I had was a retold version by Rajee Raman with the name "Detective Stories "(Note: A Big Negative: The author Arthur Conan Doyle's name is not mentioned in any of these books but  the stories are practically the same ).The language is simple in these books (if only he had given the credits).Each small  book has 4 cases.

I came to know that in addition to the stories of small cases, Doyle also wrote novel  sized  ones .His first ever success was a long story 'A Study in Scarlet' which is long because after the case is solved by Holmes , the killer tells the story of the past.

After completing board exams I bought the complete collection of Harry Potter and the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes which includes all the long and short stories. I had ONE WHOLE HAPPY MONTH(with some obstacles to read of course)

AUTHOR and the BOOKS

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a doctor of medicine and since he didn't have a busy practice , he had plenty of time to write . His first success was 'A STUDY IN SCARLET'.

'THE SIGN OF FOUR' is one more novel.

 He wrote many stories and the response was great. He brought Holmes'  life to an end in a direct encounter with Moriarty, a mastermind criminal who is considered by Holmes as an equally brilliant person. 

    The public were disappointed and Doyle brought  Holmes back to life in 'The Empty House' and continued writing many more.

                                               

    Total number of short stories=56(divided into The adventures of SH, The memoirs of SH, The return of SH

                                     

     Total number of novel length stories=4

                                                     

     Total books in the collection=60

Dr. Watson, Holmes and everything they did.

Dr .John H Watson is an equally important character since he is the one narrating almost all the stories based on his first hand experiences with Holmes. Holmes has narrated 2 cases himself.

They met through a common friend Stamford  because both of them said the same thing to him on the same day...they needed to rent a house and had very little savings, so each wanted to find a person to share the house rent with.

 In their first meeting("A Study in scarlet")  Holmes said to Watson "You have been in Afghanistan,  I perceive". Later on after moving to 221 B, Baker Street, Watson once reads an article about observing skills that was published by Holmes in the newspaper and criticizes the writer badly without knowing that it was written by Holmes . Holmes explains to him how he found out through reasoning that Watson was a military doctor at Afghanistan. Watson gives Holmes a watch and asks him to find out about the character of the owner of the watch.Their conversation after that is very interesting and since Holmes explained very well  about the character of the owner of the watch who was Watson's brother, Watson thought that Holmes investigated about his family behind his back. After Holmes explained how he found the characters of his brother, Watson develops an admiration for Holmes.They become friends soon. 

Watson was confused about Holmes' character and profession before they became close so  he wrote his 12 observations about Holmes.

                                         

There are many movies and series made after Sherlock Holmes (Though I have watched none of them).But I believe that everything in the book can never be present in the movies or series.(Harry Potter is the best example -no offence intended, but that's the way things work).

                                            

Once they became friends, Holmes seeks Watson's help many times and always asks him to accompany him.

The conversations between Holmes and Watson are always quite humorous.

Holmes takes joy in surprising Watson with unexpected deductions which leaves Watson in an How? How? How? kind of emotion all the time.

At the end of "The sign of four", Watson affirms that Arthur had done all the work in the business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?"

"For me still remains the cocaine bottle "

Holmes puts on disguise in some cases.

There is an interesting world inside these books where this genius solved cases in a period where no mobile phones or tracking devices existed.

The character holds the Guinness World Record for the most portrayed human literary character.

                       

Possible ways of reading the complete collection:

Hard copies are available on online shopping sites .You can choose yours based on your preferences.

If you are okay with reading e books you can download an app in the playstore and read it offline. I found one with good reviews which is from Lettus(3.8 MB).It ha been categorized beautifully and you can continue from where you stopped in the previous read.

When you like something new, have you ever thought why haven't I tried this these many days ?

Don't miss a wonderful hobby .Also don't miss Sherlock Holmes!!!